Succotash, The Comedy Soundcast Soundcast

Succotash Chats Epi123: Speakin' with Wayne Federman

Succotash, the Comedy Soundcast Soundcast, was launched in 2011 with the idea of promoting comedy soundcasts in what was then a marketplace still trying to find its way. By featuring short clips of shows being produced by funny folks both known and unknown, we like to feel that we maybe had a little tiny, eeny weeny, itsy bitsy bit to do with helping to ignite the torch of soundcasts across the globe! (But then we've always had a rather high opinion of ourselves...)

Original show host and executive producer Marc Hershon, along with booth announcer Bill Heywatt, engineer/producer Joe Paulino, associate producer Tyson Saner, musical director Scott Carvey, and booth assistant Kenny Durgis have kept the flame alive o'er these many years. In 2018, Hershon abandoned the host chair and anointed Saner to the position, with nary a notice from the legions of listeners. Typical.

Ho, ho, ho! Yes, it’s me, Marc
Hershon. Your host and Santa Claus for Epi123 of
Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. My gift for you
this year? It’s another installment of Succotash Chats,
where I feature a conversation with someone associated with
podcasting in one way of another. And this Christmas edition is not
different, as our Special Guest is none other than Wayne
Federman!

I thought he’d be the
perfect holiday treat since, just like Jesus, he’s Jewish, funny,
and occasionally misunderstood. Wow. That comparison would draw SO
much hate mail from fans of both Jesus and Wayne…IF anyone actually
listened to this show.

Wayne’s a great guy, a funny
comedian, and a delightful actor, not to mention the co-host of a
podcast called Human
Conversation, with Erin McGathy. Regular
Succotash listeners may remember I spoke with Wayne during
multi-part Epi116 back in September when I was at the LA Podfest.
We’ve got more time to delve into things this time around and we
get into his long time served on the comedy stage, his podcast
experience, and some other topics besides.

In addition to my chat with Mr.
Federman, we have a double dose of our Burst O’ Durst with
political comedian and social commentator Will Durst, a brand
new Henderson’s Pants commercial penned by our friend
Harry White and featuring
our own Bill Heywatt, back in fine
form after a brief illness.

In fact, as a special Christmas
treat for you and your hole…family, we have Bill singing a special
holiday song!

Speaking of songs, we also have a
new and bizarre a cappella tune from Abner
Serd, which will immediately follow the Tweetsack this
time around, and before Mr. Durst’s second segment.

Before we get into the stuff, I just wanted to wish you
and yours a happy holiday season, whichever holiday you celebrate.
And that includes no holiday at all, depending where in the world
you might be or whatever your philosophy might entail.

Sometimes I feel like
Succotash is out on the Island of Misfit Podcasts, since
we’re mostly playing clips and promoting other comedy podcasts and
we only generate a tiny amount of our own material, plus some
interesting interviews with cool people connected to
podcasting.

We’re not fancy by any means, and
we’re not the kind of show a podcast network is keen to pick up —
what network wants to be promoting podcasts that aren’t on that
network? And we don’t have much sponsor appeal it seems,
either.

But YOU’RE listening to
Succotash and that means the world to me. When I started
the show almost 5 years ago — FIVE years! — I didn’t know if anyone
would want to listen but you and a lot of other people have proven
that there’s an audience for what we do at Succotash, and
I want you to know that its’ really appreciated.

I want to thank the crew here,
too, especially our producer/engineer
Joe Paulino, our announcer
Bill Heywatt, and
especially our Associate Producer
Tyson Saner, without whose
help this show might have stalled out. Harvesting clips is no easy
task. It reminds me of my days as a segment producer for a clip
show on TV — largely thankless but imminently the hull that keeps
the whole damn ship afloat.

I also want to thank all the
comedy podcasters that we’ve clipped this past year for their
generosity in letting us pick and choose what we want to feature
from their shows.

And, of course, I want to thank
the guests that have been kind enough to let us visit with them on
the Succotash Chats editions of the show. I’ve enjoyed
every interview we’ve presented for you. Sometimes the audio
quality hasn’t been the best but I’d rather take the opportunity to
interview someone when the moment presents itself rather than to be
overly precious with making sure we can get the best location to
record it in. Just because I’ve lost a couple of chances to chat it
up by doing that and it doesn’t seem worth missing those
opportunities.

That’s going to put a bow around
the Christmas gift that has been this episode of Succotash
Chats, the Comedy Podcast Podcast. Thanks again to Wayne
Federman and thanks again to YOU! May you and yours have an
absolutely stupendous time this holiday season and if you forgot
someone on your gift list this year, you can always make it up to
them by passing them the Succotash!